Guys! Hope this reaches you at a happy time in your week, I know Thursdays are one step closer to the weekend so hey good news right there! Anyways, Rosie just went down for her nap and Wyatt is at preschool so I’m ignoring my sink of dishes to meet you right here, right now!

SO many things to write about and likely a limited amount of time so here we go!

F A R M H O U S E– Great news, we finally have a step forward, fora minute there we were stuck in neutral and it wasn’t fun. If you didn’t know we got red tagged July 18th so we basically had to stop all work we were doing and resubmit for permits ect.. long sticky process but after a few back and forth meetings with the city we are basically ready to start working, and somehow we got the better end of the deal when all was said and done! First order on the agenda is our guest unit which we are turning into a little one bedroom house to someday rent or maybe do a little bed and breakfast! We will also be shoring up the little barn on the property which Gavin has clearly claimed for his Bronco. As we start working on those we will begin plans for our main farmhouse. If you didn’t know we have to tear it down completely and build a new house which at first I was really sad about but now I’m thrilled. As we get going on working with our architect ill be sure to let you in on the details of that! Below are some inspiration photos I have for the guest unit, I’m way over modern farmhouse and more into warm cottage farmhouse so hopefully these photos will give you the list!

W R A P P I N G P A R T Y – I haven’t really followed up since our holiday partnership with Stand Strong launched a few weeks ago, but holy cow I still feel like I’m floating over it. To be totally honest, before we launched the partnership and everything we had all these lists and toys to get and I had a legit conversation with my mom like I’m not even sure this will be a huge hit and if it isn’t I am going to need your help buying all these gifts haha! Thankfully she agreed and was on board and I’m so humbled and happy to say she never even had to buy a gift! This entire partnership and engagement from you all is such a highlight of life, it was like this platform I’ve used to grow and build gave back to me what I have been giving to you guys! It didn’t even end with the gifts, I’ve had numerous donations of wrapping paper, bows and now we are including anyone else that wants to bring a gift card we will have stockings for the moms! I’m just so excited and thankful to everyone who helped, so if that was you, thank you! Our wrapping party is December 13th 6:30pm at Cafe Andreini’s in Arroyo Grande and would love to have you come and help! We have SO many gifts to wrap and I suck at wrapping so please come help me!

C H R I S T M A S – I love Christmas time, and I love being in a community where so many people put value in this season. I begged Gavin to get a tree as early as possible and we made a compromise to get it after Thanksgiving. WE go as a little family and this year we went with my brother and his wife who are expecting a little baby and had the best time. Gavin and Wyatt ran through the Christmas trees and we played tag. I was telling someone, we could have the hugest best game of sardines or something at Halloways Christmas Tree farm because it is literally a few acres of fresh trees. If you saw on my Instagram Wyatt is eating up this Christmas tradition as well as many others. He loves the decorations and Elf on the Shelf which hasn’t moved for about a week now.

L I G H T S – I’ve found new hobby which is to turn up the Christmas music and drive around aimlessly looking for christmas lights. It is so nice having the kids all strapped in while I listen to Christmas music and drink my coffee haha! We stopped by one on Starlight Drive in Arroyo Grande and are going to Shell Beach next because we heard there is an amazing one there too! It’s my new favorite thing to do and the kids love and usually fall asleep after a while so win, win!

I N T E R M I T T E N T F A S T I N G – Guys, i’m obsessed. I will actually be wiring about this in more detail but over the past month or so I’ve started this fasting which has completely helped me lose weight and changed the way I eat. I have freakin tried everything under the sun and I love this. Anyone tried it? Direct message me questions if you have them but I wanted to share briefly today how much I am loving it.

I feel like I just stepped into a coffee shop with an old friend, with a million updates and not enough time! Life has been on fast forward, a constant movement and changes everywhere I turn. I can’t say I’m hating it because I’m actually have a lot of fun although it can feel a bit overwhelming at times. To prevent total word vomit, scatter brained I’m going to title a few sections and give you guys the jist.

Gypsy Life

My life is a homebody’s worst nightmare. Sadly, I am a homebody so channeling positivity and energy into making each place we are at a home has been quite the task. Since June 28th we have 1. moved out of our home and rented it out 2. moved into my parents house, moved out two months later 3. moved into Gavin’s parents guest cottage on their property and we will be moving out of here in two months! Where to next you ask? Finally our farmhouse property, however not in the way you may think! Each space has been so much fun and full of adventure and change for us all. As a mom I’ve never put so much effort into being the “home” my kids and husband need me to be.

Farmhouse, we’re fighting for you!

I’ve spent the last month really working on mindset because we are going to have to salvage as much wood and precious items from the farmhouse and rebuild a new one. Yup. Not how we pictured it but you know what, I’ve learned life never goes as planned and if this is the “not planned” part of my life I will take it. So there’s that update, been waiting to get that out for a minute. We are going to move onto the property and because rebuilding a new house overnight is going to take a minute, we are going to buy a little trailer to live in while our guest unit is finished and then live in that while we build our home! If you look at it backwards, by the time we are in our finished home we will have moved four times. It’s going to be a crazy ride but its will be worth it! Now we get a brand new house which I would be very annoying if I complained about that. So we are excited and our meeting today with the city went great!! Time for some vision boards!

Cabbage Leaves, Tiny Steps and our sweet Rosie Girl

Sweet Ro is almost officially weaned and this was WAY harder than I expected. Cabbage leaves, Tylenol and a few days of true blues are thankfully being me but holy cow did anyone else have trouble weaning? Rosie was totally fine but my body was like wait, hold up, I’ve produced milk for 13 months and now you want me to stop? It was really crazy, I’m not an emotional person so to have feelings of sadness for no reason was crazy and I really worked hard to get outside, workout, and hang with my mom to help me get through the hormonal change I didn’t expect!

Wyatt

My little love. In preschool three days a week for two weeks now and I still make sure he knows how much I miss him while he is at school. Around 12:30 I get really excited to go in and pick him up because he gets super excited and drops his toys and wants to be held when he sees me which really makes my mama heart happy! He has been learning so much at school its amazing, he will come home and talk about the funniest things. The other day he goes “You want to know the difference between a toad and a frog?” I am constantly laughing and listening to him totally smiling inside at how great of a little boy he is.

Parents Getaway!

Never ever ever ever ever underestimate the power of a getaway with your signifiant other, especially if you’re parents. We realized that over the past year we have done quite a bit of traveling but nothing with just the two of us. The second we realized that we were like get us the heck out of here! The morning we were supposed to leave I woke up at 7am and Gavin was already up, dressed and packed it was super cute. We went to Rosewood Cordevalle and we had the best time. We officially don’t know how to relax so we hiked and worked out then spent the rest of the time chatting and catching up on life. It feels good to be in love and to nurture our relationship. On the way home we were already planning our next getaway!

I will likely be writing individual posts about all those topics above but I thought I would update you on life because its going a million miles an hour! I appreciate you guys following along, I know you probably feel like you can’t keep up but I almost feel the same hahah! I’ve learned a lot about mindset lately and the importance of focusing on the good things, really keeping my blinders on so my focus is on the things that matter and things that are vital to keep my little family happy. At the end of the day, if I’m stressing about things that aren’t necessary it flows into my family and that’s the last thing we need so I’ve been grateful for that realization lately. . Talk to you guys soon, pancakes are burning lol.

Happy Tuesday everyone, hope this post reaches you at a happy time of your week! We are so excited about everything that’s going on and having this platform to share and document it all makes it even sweeter. The Farmhouse work is staring to go full force and I want to make sure I get this before post in because so much is changing in the next two weeks!

A little backstory, we have had our eyes on this 1920’s farmhouse for so long, feels like over a year but the starts finally aligned and we were able to purchase it, from our (Now) new neighbors! The sweetest couple owned this house and we are so grateful that they live on the same street so our relationship has only just begun! The neighborhood is full of awesome people, families with children and grandparents so we know we will feel right at home!

Like I said, this is a fixer upper and we have so many plans so keeping this simple (today will be tough because my mind is going a million directions) but I’ll start with the basics, the lot and the pictures!

The property inlcudes a 2 bedroom house, a guest house, a small playhouse, and a barn. The barn has been copeltey taken over by Gavin. He tells me don’t even look it it, its his for all his Bronco things! Having his own space will be good for us all, and if I look out my kitchen window I will be able to watch him and Wyatt at work and I’m so excited for that!

As for our timeline, we are going to address the guest unit first and get that all set up to rent out and then get after the house! I am serious when I say the guest unit will be nicer than our house for a while ahah!

Here are the photos of our little farmhouse I’m going to start with the hashtag #burkardfarmhouse so I can keep track!Last night we were down at the house with Gavin’s parents and his dad was helping us trim all the trees because fumigation starts here right away! Once the house is tented I won’t be so terrified of opening windows and uncovering furniture haha! Ill document weekly videos on our Instagram TV, and smaller details in my stories. Basically, if you follow along my Instagram, you’ll be set!